Rossett News Update - 28 June 2019

North Yorkshire Teaching Awards

The North Yorkshire Teaching Awards' Ceremony took place last night at Thirsk Racecourse. The aim of these awards is to recognise outstanding teaching, support and school team success in secondary education. Our staff who were there to receive thanks for their work in school and the impact they have made on the lives of children were:

Newly Qualified Teacher: Miss Taswell

Classroom Teacher: Miss Reynolds

Teaching Assistant: Ms McCabe

Specialist Education Team: SEND Team

Community & Collaboration Award: Rossett Community Partnership

Mrs Brown, Assistant Headteacher (externally nominated by The Virtual School for her work with Looked After Children).

Prom Celebrations

Our Year 11s and Year 13s celebrated their time at Rossett School at their 'Prom Evenings' last night at the Sun Pavilion and The Swan Hotel respectively. On a beautiful summer's evening, the Year 11 students arrived in style; one in a tractor and others in fire engines, Rolls Royce and Lamborghinis. Mrs Young (Director of Learning, Year 11) said that the students were more glamorous than Hollywood stars! The students enjoyed a 'mocktail' on arrival, indulged in a sweetie cart and had fun in the photo booth.

The Year 13 students celebrated the end of their A Level examinations - Sixth Form staff, teachers and tutors provided a welcome reception for the students who sat down to a two course meal, danced to the resident DJ and captured memories of the evening in a fun photo booth provided by our own Mr McKenzie. A fantastic evening was had by all and we wish all students every success and happiness in their future endeavours.

Thank you to everyone involved in organising and supporting these events.

A selection of photographs from both events can be seen at the bottom of this newsletter.

Junior Maths Challenge

Rossett has, once again recorded excellent results in the Junior Maths Challenge achieving 7 Gold certificates, 10 Silver certificates and 21 Bronze certificates. Over 270,000 Year 7 and Year 8 students across the UK sat the challenge with the top 6% of students achieving Gold, 13% of students achieving Silver and 21% achieving Bronze. The top 3% of students in the country are then invited to take part in the Junior Kangaroo round. Of those students from Rossett School who qualified to sit the Junior Kangaroo paper Arlo Collins (Year 7), Yael Braunstein, Patrick Fleming and Eva Bailey (all Year 8) achieved a Merit and Nadia Othman (Year 8) achieved the Qualification. Miss Reynolds coordinated the challenge and said "This year's results were outstanding; it is extremely difficult to qualify for the Junior Kangaroo and each one of the students should be very proud of their result and we are very proud of them".

Big Bang Science Trip

Year 8 Rossett students visited the Science Big Bang fair at Doncaster racecourse on Tuesday. They took part in a variety of activities, such as: processing their own fingerprints; making their own circuits to build a torch; and taking part in a pop-up planetarium show. A particular highlight was the wild animal show. Students had the opportunity to interact with snakes, lizards, skunks, meerkats, kookaburras and spiders. All students involved were a credit to themselves and the school.

3Rs Exceptional Learner Tokens - Resilience Week

This week is Resilience Week at Rossett. Students have been looking at developing their resilience in lessons by persevering difficult work, staying focused and showing determination to improve. 100 limited edition tokens have been awarded across the school to mark this occasion for students with exceptional resilience. Their names will be entered in to a prize draw at the end of the year. This is the first of the 3Rs weeks. Next week is Responsibility Week where students will be reflecting on their core responsibilities in school and working to ensuring they are contributing to school life.

Sports Day

Preparation is well underway for our annual Sports Day which will be held on Tuesday 2 July.

Year groups will take part throughout the day: (periods 2 and 4 are swapped)

Periods 1 & 2: Year 7 and 8

Periods 3 & 4: Year 9 and 10

All students are on late lunch

Period 5: The whole school will either compete or watch the sporting events).

Students will take part in athletics competitions, retro sports, a tug-of-war competition as well as rounders and softball. Ice lollies will be on sale during Period 5 for 50p each. All students should come to school in full PE kit as everyone has signed up for an event.

Paris Trip

On Wednesday 3 July a group of Year 9 and Year 10 students depart for a cultural trip to Paris. The trip will be a very valuable way of increasing students’ cultural knowledge of France as well as encouraging them in the use of the French language. Activities will include a boat trip along the River Seine, visits to the Arc de Triomphe, the Tour Eiffel, the Champs-Élysées and a day trip to Disneyland Paris. We understand the predicted heatwave in the city will have lessened by the time the students depart however, students will be given advice by staff on the use of suncream and how to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water. Look out for updates and pictures of the students activities on Twitter @Rossett.

Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Expedition

This weekend our largest group of Duke of Edinburgh students embark on their final DofE Bronze Expedition. The students will depart in groups from either Wath or Pateley Bridge and return to Hampsthwaite or Killinghall on Sunday evening. The forecast is good for the weekend (suncream, water and insect repellent a must!) and we wish them well for this final test of all they have learned.

Carnegie Book Award

The Year 8 book club enjoyed the culmination of the Carnegie Book Award shadowing with a celebration lunch and awards ceremony. They have been busy reading and reviewing the short list books over the last two months and were delighted with the winner ‘The Poet X’ by Elizabeth Acevedo. There are lots of new books from the shortlist available to borrow from the Learning Resource Centre. If you would like to see the students’ reviews go to https://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/grouphomepages/index.php?GroupID=9898

Thank you to Mrs Huett for co-ordinating this club.

Last Day of Term Arrangements

As the end of term is fast-approaching we would like to confirm the arrangements for the last day of term:

Form Time & P1: as normal

P2: Year 7 & 8 End of Year Celebration Assembly (Sports Hall). Year 9, 10 & 12 Tutor Time

P3 – Year 9, 10 & 12 End of Year Celebration Assembly (Sports Hall). Years 7 & 8 Tutor Time

12:25-1:10: Early lunch for whole school

P4: Normal lesson

2:10: End of school

2:20: Buses depart

Co-curricular Activities at Rossett

At Rossett School we are very proud of the co-curricular activities that we offer to all. However, we are always looking at ways to improve on what we currently do and we value parental input. In October, Mrs Temple, Rossett's Co-Curricular Coordinator asked parents to complete a survey monkey with the aim of further enhancing our provision.

To evaluate the success of the improvements we have made, we would be grateful if you could once again complete the attached link to a survey monkey or scan the QR code which will help us modify and improve our provision where necessary.

Rossett PTA AGM

Due to unforseen circumstances the PTA AGM was cancelled on Tuesday this week and has been re-arranged for Tuesday 2 July in Meeting Room 3 at 7.15pm. All parents and staff who would like to contribute are welcome; please come along to the meeting if you can.

Scopay Update and App

The online system we use to allow parents to make payments for schools purchases including school meals and trips is re-branding. The website www.scopay.com will become 'mobile-responsive' with effect from 8th July. They have also released an app version which is available to download from their website now for iOS and android users.

Congratulations to...

Alannah Saphir in Year 8 who has successfully gained a place to perform at the Grand Opera House York in the English Youth Ballet's production of Giselle in September;